Outlier Venture: What's Next After the AI Hype?

Original Article Title: AI Agents: Where Next After the Hype?

Original Article Author: Outlier Ventures

Original Article Translation: Felix, PANews

The accelerated convergence of AI with decentralized technology infrastructure is fundamentally reshaping the entire landscape of the internet. This powerful synergy is ushering in a new era where autonomous AI agents are no longer just a futuristic concept but are poised to become a reality, redefining both the way we interact with the internet and conduct economic activities.

However, amidst the hype surrounding agents today, the real question remains: What lies ahead for the future?

Agents are a Fresh Interface Designed for Delegation

These intelligent systems can interpret user intent and execute complex tasks with minimal human intervention, marking a significant paradigm shift that unleashes endless possibilities for innovation across industries. The framework outlined in 'The Post Web' paper, as well as the anticipated evolution of the current web paradigm, provide crucial context for understanding and harnessing the evolving field of AI agents. The paper posits that the core concept of agents revolves around delegation. Users no longer need to manually click and browse the internet but instead delegate their intent to AI agents, which then operate in the service, infrastructure, and marketplace on their behalf.

This transformation has unlocked vast opportunities, primarily driving the need for tools and infrastructure to support agent systems. Significant demand is expected for:

· Agent software development toolkits and training frameworks

· Orchestrating layers for multi-agent coordination

· Secure deployment environments

· Tools for defining, validating, and monitoring agent behavior

· The need for systems capable of managing complexity and ensuring trust as the number and variety of agents proliferate

Building Trust in Autonomous Agents

The successful adoption of autonomous agents hinges on establishing unwavering trust. This necessitates developing robust security protocols and transparent validation mechanisms, potentially leveraging the tamper-proof nature of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to ensure that agents act according to user intent and effectively mitigate the risk of malicious behavior. On-chain validation of agent behavior will enable:

· Transparent audit trails

· Encrypted assurances of compliance

· Mitigating Malicious Behavior

· Agent Reputation and Accountability

The Intention Economy relies on these mechanisms because trust is key to achieving scalability.

The Rise of Professional AI Agents

In the envisioned Intention Economy, the Internet will be optimized around fulfilling user intent, greatly driving the demand for specialized AI agents tailored to specific needs and purposes.

· Personal Assistant Agents: Handling everything from scheduling to finances and beyond

· Financial Agents: Executing decentralized finance transactions and managing digital assets

· Data and Research Agents: Collecting and organizing high-quality data

· DAO Governance Agents: Participating in voting and decentralized governance

Each professional domain is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Agent Stack

Agents don't just appear out of thin air. They require a complete ecosystem to operate, evolve, and unlock real economic value. For entrepreneurs, this is the true frontier: building tools and infrastructure for the agent economy. Here are some of the most significant opportunities:

Agent Marketplace and Reputation Systems

The rise of AI agents will spur a Wild West of online services, where not every agent can be trusted.

Founders who can build marketplace platforms that enable users to discover, verify, and deploy reliable agents will have a significant first-mover advantage. Imagine an "app store" designed specifically for autonomous agents:

· To compare agents' actual performance (speed, success rate, security) rather than just their claims

· On-chain reputation can attest to agents' long-term performance, making it easy to identify trustworthy and high-risk services

· Smart matching engines can dynamically connect users with the right agents for their tasks

Trust is paramount, and those who can verify trust in marketplace platforms will succeed.

Personalized Interfaces and the Role of the "Thin Web"

Even in a world driven by agents, humans still crave interaction. This has spurred a significant demand for dynamic personalized interfaces that can adjust in real-time based on the user's intent, preferences, and needs.

Enter the "Thin Web": a unique interface generated instantly by AI agents, tailored for each user. Imagine a shopping experience like a private consultation, games that can adjust in real-time based on the player's style, and social apps that can display connections or communities based on deeper intent signals.

Entrepreneurs building these human-centric layers on top of agent infrastructure will shape a new era of emotional and social structures.

Infrastructure Behind the Agents

The operation of agents requires resources: computation, storage, bandwidth, and identity. The bottleneck of centralization lies in its inability to scale and earn trust. This is where DePIN comes into play:

· Distributed computing for agent training and inference.

· Decentralized storage for agent memory and data persistence.

· Ubiquitous and resilient connectivity layer for inter-agent coordination.

Building APIs, smart contracts, and dApps to enable agents to autonomously and securely access decentralized infrastructure is a vast open design space. Intelligent entrepreneurs have already begun the construction. These layers collectively form a new digital backbone, the invisible engine room in the agent economy. Developing this stack is not just a technical challenge but a once-in-a-decade opportunity to lay the foundation for the future network and define a new era of life.

What Is the Next Step for Agent Innovation?

Unleashing the full potential of AI agents depends on the continuous improvement of their core capabilities. Advances in learning paradigms such as Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) will drive this evolution, enhancing decision-making, contextual awareness, and reasoning abilities. As agents begin to collaborate to solve complex problems, secure and efficient inter-agent communication and coordination protocols are also needed to fuel the rise of complex multi-agent systems.

However, innovation cannot happen in isolation. Addressing foundational challenges will unlock new opportunities. Firstly, a digital identity and reputation system for agents must be built from the ground up to ensure accountability and establish trust. As agents progressively integrate into various fields from personal finance to enterprise operations, a clear governance framework is crucial to prevent misuse and protect users.

Simultaneously, breakthroughs in Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and secure communication protocols are essential to delegate sensitive tasks without exposing user data. The future of agent innovation requires not only intelligence but also substantial infrastructure and trust. Those who build the tools, systems, and standards for this emerging layer will shape not only the future of AI but all aspects of future life.

Original Article Link